K-theory and the connection index

Abstract

Let G denote a split simply connected almost simple p-adic
group. The classical example is the special linear group SL(n). We study the spherical C*-algebra of G and prove that the rank of the K-theory group K_0 is the connection index f(G). We relate this result to the recent conjecture in http://eprints.ma.man.ac.uk/1553 and to a recent result of Solleveld in http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.0177.